Awards in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Visiting Recipients

2025

Award for Excellence

Temitayo Kehinde Oni, Science Education
University of Georgia, Athens; Advisor: Dr. Emily Adah-Miller

"Like an Iron deficiency could cause it": Investigating Undergraduates' prior Knowledge and Misconceptions About Sickle Cell 

2023

Award for Excellence

Brittany Acors, Religious Studies
University of Virginia, Advisor: Dr. Matthew Hedstrom

Creed and Crisis: Lived Religious Responses to the U.S. Polio Epidemic

Honorable Mention

Anu Karippal, Anthropology
University of Virginia, Advisor: Dr. Richard Handler
Human-Elephant Relations in South India; Of Haptic Sociality and Relational Ethics

2020

Award for Excellence

Robert Manzo, History
Western Carolina University, Advisor: Dr. Alexander Macaulay
The Development of Public Libraries in North Carolina, 1895-1941

Honorable Mention

Daniel Affsprung, Cultural Studies
Dartmouth College, Advisor: Dr. James Dobson
Big Data and the Communication Metaphor: What if the Data Speaks for Itself?

2019

Award for Excellence

Grant E. Stanton, History
University of Pennsylvania, Advisor: Dr. Daniel Richter
Petitioning for Freedom in Revolutionary Massachusetts, 1773-1777

Honorable Mention

Kenneth Kaizer, Anthropology
George Mason University, Advisor: Dr. Rashmi Sadana
The General Theory of Societal Domains: The Exploration and Revelation of a Structural Framework for Human Society

2018

Award for Excellence

Patrick Woodruff, Human Development & Psychological Counseling
Appalachian State University, Advisor: Dr. Geri Miller
Experience, Perception and Normalcy as Predictors of Traumatic Stress Anxiety (PTSD)

Honorable Mention

Erin Durham, History
University of Maryland-College Park, Advisor: Dr. Colleen Woods
In Pursuit of Reform, Whether Convict or Free:  Prison Labor Reform in Maryland, 1912-1922

2017

Award for Excellence

Lauryn Walker, Health Behavior and Policy
Virginia Commonwealth University, Advisor: Dr. Peter Cunningham
The Impact of Dental Insurance on Emergency Department Visits

Honorable Mentions

Mandar Bodas, Health Behavior and Policy
Virginia Commonwealth University, Advisor: Dr. Tiffany Green
Inter-generational Smoking Behaviors Among Asian Immigrants: Do Region of Ancestry and Gender Matter?

Suparna Dutta, Government and Public Affairs
Virginia Commonwealth University, Advisor: Dr. Nancy Stutts
Can Gender Sensitive Local Development Projects Improve the Subjective Well-being of the Participating Communities?

2016

Award for Excellence

Anushree Vichare, Health Behavior and Policy
Virginia Commonwealth University, Advisor: Dr. Lindsay Sabik
Perceptions of Healthcare Provider Communication Skills in Race and Sex Concordant Interactions: Does Income Matter?

Honorable Mentions

Mandar Bodas, Health Behavior and Policy
Virginia Commonwealth University, Advisor: Dr. Tiffany Green
Did Medicaid Primary Care Reimbursement Rate Increase in 2013 and 2014 under the Affordable Care Act Impact Access to Primary Care of Medicaid Populations?

Timothy Loh, Arab Studies
Georgetown, Advisor: Dr. Sara Singha
“Maybe Jesus Knows Sign”: The Formation of a Deaf Christian Identity

2015

Award for Excellence

Jeehee Han, Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences
Columbia University, Advisor: Dr. Monica Prasad
Taking the Health Aid Debate to the Sub-National Level: Impact and Allocation of Foreign Health Aid in Malawi

Honorable Mention

Bre’Auna Beasley, Public Policy
Virginia Commonwealth University, Advisor: Dr. Veronica Womack
Rural Health: A Multivariate Analysis of the Incidence of Chlamydia in Rural Georgia and the Case for Local Governments

2014

Award for Excellence

Wafa Tarazi, Public Policy
Virginia Commonwealth University, Advisor: Dr. Lindsay Sabik
Medicaid disenrollment and racial disparities in access to care

Honorable Mention

Stephanie Roldan, Psychology
Virginia Tech, Advisor: Dr. Anthony Cate
Identifying parts and wholes in real-world objects: an application of critical spacing

2013

Award for Excellence

Jonathan Barth, History
George Mason University, Advisor: Dr. Cynthia Kierner
The Massachusetts Mint: A Study of Evolving Imperial Relations in the 17th Century

Honorable Mention

Jonathan Renz, Psychology
Radford University, Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey Aspelmeier 
Adult Attachment Styles and Self Regulatory Resources: A Dynamic Interplay

2012

Award for Excellence 

Erin Farquhar, English Literature and Folklore
George Mason University, Advisor: Dr. Erika Lin
The Devil Beside You: Issues of Sense in “The Witch of Edmonton”

Honorable Mention

James Howard, Public Policy

University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Advisor: Dr. Scott Farrow
Measuring the Impacts of the National Flood Insurance Program

Christa Martens, Health Behavior and Health Education
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Advisor: Dr. Edwin Fisher
Una Red Social: Peer Support for Improved Diabetes Self-Management in Real del Monte, Mexico

Ben Plache, History
Virginia Commonwealth University, Advisor: Dr. Timothy Thurber
The Doughboys in Their Own Words: Reconstructing the Narrative of the Battle of St. Mihiel

2011

Award for Excellence 

Stephen Santelli, History
West Virginia University, Advisor: Dr. Joseph Hodge
The Chesterbelloc and Imperialism: Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton and the British Empire,1900-1920

Honorable Mention

Mark Flanagan, Anthropology
Georgia State University, Advisor: Dr. Kathryn Kozaitis
Contextual heavy alcohol use amongst homeless individuals, veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and Notre Dame students

2010

Award for Excellence

Susan Llewellyn, History
George Mason University.  Advisors: Dr. Joan Bristol & Dr. Kathy McGill 
Competing for Power: An Examination of Motivations Behind Changes in Women's Property Rights in Colonial Virginia

Honorable Mention

Ashley Whitehead, History
West Virginia University.  Advisor: Dr. Peter Carmichael
"A Debt of Honor": The Benevolence of Richmond's Female Elites at the "Last Confederate Christmas" of 1864

2009

Award for Excellence

Stephanie Crumbaugh, History
Johns Hopkins University.  Advisor: Dr. Phil Morgan 
American Indian Enslavement in Colonial New England

Honorable Mention

Kevin Barry, History
University of Delaware.  Advisor: Dr. John Montano
The Hebrew and Irish Gaelic Revival Movements: A Comparison

2008

Award for Excellence

Amanda Stuckey, American Studies
University of Virginia.  Advisor: Dr. Anna Brickhouse 
Blending Texts, Blending Bodies: The American Mulatto in William Wells Brown's Clotel

Honorable Mention

Jongmook Choe, Statistics
George Washington University.  Advisor: Dr. Reza Modarres
Income Inequality and Crime in the United States

2007

Award for Excellence

Bonnie Richard, Anthropology
George Washington University.  Advisors: Dr. Richard Grinker & Dr. Barbara Miller
Parents and Disability in Ladakh: Coping, Cure-seeking, and Awareness

Honorable Mention

Alissa Holland, Psychology
Virginia Tech.  Advisor: Dr. David Harrison
Lateralized Differences in Systolic Blood Pressure Regulation and Phoneme Detection as a Function of Hostility Level and Stress